Review: Pedaling Innovations Catalyst Flat Pedals | Road Bike Clipless Pedals

The Shimano PD-A600 pedals offer excellent support and stability when paired with the right shoes, but it’s not hard to see how things can be less-than-optimal otherwise. The quality of the interface will also degrade over time as the shoe lugs – and the pedal body itself – wear.

Ultimately, there really are only four main players when it comes to road-oriented, three-hole pedal systems: Shimano, Look, Speedplay, and Time. There are others to consider, such as Keywin and Coombe, but you’ll be hard pressed to find any of these alternatives in your local bunches. Given this, it shouldn’t be too surprising to see that our team’s preferences are split amongst the mainstream brands. Many of us have used many others, but we retain our go-to choices. Read on to learn more about our personal choices, and why we all went that way.

Although it gives both Shimano and Look’s higher-end pedals a run for their money in terms of price, the Xpro 10 is actually the least expensive of Time’s three Xpro pedals. While the Xpro 10 has a hollow steel axle and steel bearings, the Xpro 12 (£259.99) has a solid titanium axle with steel bearings and is lighter at a claimed 94g per pedal. The top-end Xpro 15 is a whopping £399.99, weighing just 87g per pedal (claimed) with CeramicSpeed bearings and a hollow titanium axle. Essentially, all three are identical in shape and you get the new carbon fairing on the Xpro 10s, so unless you’re really fussy about weight and really want ceramic bearings, they’re probably the best to go for.

Thinner bodies reduce weight, place the soles of your shoes closer to the axle, and lower your centre of gravity just a little bit too. A thinner body is also inevitably flatter, which can reduce concavity and grip.

Perceptions of safety may be one of the biggest impediments to e-bike sales growing more swiftly than they already have, said Morgan Lommele, e-bike campaigns manager for the Bicycle Product Suppliers Association and PeopleForBikes Coalition.

Sure, a saddlebag will let you carry the basics, but with a tool roll you can practically carry enough stuff to rebuild your entire bicycle, and you can do so stylishly and unobtrusively. Plus, they’re far classier: tool rolls are to saddle bags as crystal tumblers are to Dixie cups.

Want to know more about all the other pedals on test? You can get your hands on the full feature from Issue #117 of Singletrack Magazine, which includes all reviews of the winning pedals along with a guide on what goes into making a high performance clip-in pedal. Head here to get a preview of the magazine, then get it shipped right to your door!

All positive so far, but about a week into testing, and thereafter, I started experiencing an odd squeaking noise. It doesn’t appear to affect the performance whatsoever but is just a tad irritating, and I was curious to see if I was the only one. After a month of use I handed them to road.cc editor (and regular Time pedal user) Tony to use for a couple of weeks and… there was no sound from them, just plenty of positive comments. Here’s exactly what Time’s distributor told me when I put it to them:

Year after year, they appear in the Shimano catalogue, largely unchanged since they were first introduced approximately one zillion years ago.

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"We have heard of this issue before but only on a few occasions, and given how popular these pedals have proven to be it’s clear that it’s only affecting a small amount of customers. Time have been made aware and are investigating the issue to determine what is the root cause in these small amount of cases. However, from what we have found it would appear the noise is stemming from the interface between the cleats and the pedal body. Given the large platform area of the XPro pedals we feel that with some people’s riding style and shoe set-up it’s possible for the cleat and pedal platform to cause some friction causing the squeaking noise that you report. We have found that a small amount of Teflon spray to the main pedal platform can often resolve this issue. It’s important to stress that this does only seem to be affecting a small amount of users as you have found yourself."

Also into my third year but with EPS. Haven’t regretted it for a second. Effortless and trouble free gear changing especially when braking. I’m thinking of replacing my touring bike and I hope I can get it fitted with triple electronic shifting.